


For Want of the Right Alice

by Asmadasa_Hatter



Category: Alice in Wonderland (Movies - Burton)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-06
Updated: 2016-08-06
Packaged: 2018-07-29 16:04:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7690900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Asmadasa_Hatter/pseuds/Asmadasa_Hatter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nothing is as it was, is or could be when Alice finally returns to Underland. With her Hatter is still not himself, can she restore him in time to save them both and all Underland once again from whatever lies in wait between Dreams and Reality. Spoilers for ATTLG. Also posted on FF.net</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Frabjous Day

He feels listless, following the wisps of vile purple smoke that spirit away his dearest friend once again, the vibrant teal and deep amber hues encasing the brilliant harlequin of his eyes dulling as she spiraled skyward into the ether between worlds.

Alice was gone. Well, again at any rate.

Really it shouldn’t have surprised him.

_You could stay?_

Why he’d said it all he couldn’t quite say, only that it had slipped past his lips no sooner than the errant thought had fluttered through his mostly lucid mind when she’d looked so very much like she’d wanted nothing more than to do just that.

_What an idea… a crazy, mad, wonderful idea…_

And then it was gone.

_But I can’t…_

Oh he’d known - of course he’d known.

Known the very second he’d seen her traipsing out from the undergrowth of Tugley Wood and she’d sat down beside him at tea muttering about Time’s propensity to mess about with himself in dreams. A fact he knew all too well, but she of course didn’t.

She was _almost_ Alice he noted with great intrigue, watching her from the corner of his eye, yes he was sure, near certain of it in fact. The girl beside him looking more and more like the Alice from his memories, yes indeed, just about done.

But she wasn’t _The_ Alice, with her muchness bursting from her lovely Alice seams. The Alice who embraced him, held him when they’d met like an old, most beloved friend and seemed to never wish to let him go. He’d felt it in the market place all those years ago as she’d pulled herself into his arms and oh how he wished he could remember why she’d seemed so familiar at the time. Why the feel of her against him haunted his mind.

Oh how he’d wanted in that moment, the dark madness within railing against his courtly confines like never before in his life begging him to take her in his arms as only a man could and let the world fall away…

But this was not that Alice.

Not _His_ Alice, not really.

No yet.

And truly of her many acquaintances and friends in Underland he would know surely. An entire lifetime of knowing in fact once he’d pieced it together.

_I’ll be back before you know it…_

No, no it most definitely wasn’t surprise he felt like a lead weight bearing down upon his chest.

_You won’t remember me…_

The familiar twinge of sorrow however.

_Aye_. He remembers that all too well.

As acute as the razor sharp sting of his favorite scissors or the burn of the glue in his workshop.

…….. _Horunvendush Day_.

Oh yes, he and sorrow were old friends.

_Of course I will…how could I forget…_

He’s not quite sure if he wishes for the madness to consume him so he too might forget.

_Fairfarren_ _, Alice…_

But that is not who he is. Who he wants to, must continue to be - for _her_.

So he returns to Marmoreal at the White Queens behest and the restoration of Underland begins.

For he knows one day she’ll return again as the woman he’s always known her to be and hopes, dreams and wishes ever so adamantly to any deity in all the seven kingdoms whom might be listening that one day, one day very soon in fact. She would come home to Underland, to him, and finally, she would stay.

 


	2. A Way Home

_“Alice…”_

_“……Alice…”_

_“…………Alice_

_“Hatter?”_

_“Late again I see, naughty.”_

_“Where are you?”_

_“Where I have always been of course.”_

_“Why can’t I see you?”_

_“Oh Alice, I fear there’s far too little of me left now.”_

_“Why? What’s happening to you?”_

_“I’m so sorry.”_

_“No, wait please, I’m coming, just tell me how to get back and I’ll fix this I promise.”_

_“Goodbye dearest Alice.”_

_“Hatter, no! Come back!”_

Alice gazed distractedly out at the rolling lawns and sweeping meadows of the Kingsleigh Estate. Its grand old manor house with its generous surrounds secured as a gift for her mother not a month prior for a purchase price considered a mere trifle when compared to the true extent of what their fortunes could now afford them.  

It was true of course, Time and tide waited for no man, or woman as the case had been, and just as surely as they had left to conquer the world together, three years after her last trip outside of her own world Alice had returned to England with her mother stood proudly at her side, the Kingsleigh name etched into the annals of history as pioneers in trade and export on a global scale, and a great man’s legacy finally become reality. 

Eight months on however, Alice found herself now, more than ever before, pining for the world she’d left behind. With nothing left to distract her the dreams came more often, the ghost of a familiar abused and belatedly realized, _beloved_ hand, slipping from her own coming even during her waking moments. Her fingers twitched involuntarily at her side, her thumb absently brushing over the pads of fingers.   

“You’re thinking about him again aren’t you?” 

Alice offered a resigned smile at the utterance, the soft baritone of her long suffering attorney, first mate and friend since the day he’d sprung her from the clutches of the clearly insane Doctor Bennett emerging from the dark corner he’d been sat in while she daydreamed.

“I’ve been neglecting my Futterwacken,” She mused with a wistful curl of her lip, “He wouldn’t approve at all.” 

“You’re a terrible liar,” James scoffed with a roll of his eyes, “If anything he’d scold you for a lack of imagination.” 

“You’re right of course.” She agreed as she stared past her own reflection in the frigid glass to her mother strolling hand in hand with a tall elderly gentleman through the rows of white roses on the terrace below.  Her own little tribute to the White Queen herself in hopes they might have encouraged a certain waist coated rabbit into their midst. 

“He’s slipping away from me.” She muttered more to herself than the other occupant in the room with her, “Something’s coming, I can feel it.” 

A pinstriped shoulder appeared in her peripheral vision as James leant against the opposite window, crossing his arms as he observed her, “How often now?” 

“Every night,” She whispered, the despair in her dark eyes palpable as she lifted them to his face before returning to the gardens unable to tolerate the understanding that stared back at her without feeling the urge to either sob or tear the room apart in equal measures.  “Every night it’s the same and every day thereafter I find myself equally as helpless in returning.”  

She grit her teeth in irritation as she continued her perusal of the couple below, swallowing over the ever present lump in her throat, never more grateful as James followed her gaze, content to drop the subject at least for now.  

Gerald Thompson was a good man, a friend to both her and her mother for many years and more than an equal match for the woman Helen Kingsleigh had become. Alice had watched in fascination as the two had grown closer in the months since they’d returned to England to the point she’d begun to notice the deep crimson blush of her mother’s cheeks when she caught her staring off into space with a secret smile upon her thin lips and wondered how many times James might have caught she herself with much the same expression.  

Alice smirked suddenly recalling the man’s, albeit slight reluctance as he’d asked her permission to request her mother’s hand when he’d arrived this morning.  

“Do you think perhaps he’s lost his nerve?” She remarked idly. 

“I wouldn’t be so sure.”  She chuckled at the matching smirk that spread across her companion’s face, a sudden joyous exclamation breaching the silence between the crackle of the fire and the ticking of the clock on its mantle.  

“Ah, there it is.” She pulled her watch from her pocket, the hour chiming loudly throughout the house. “And just in time for tea.”  

 James sighed dramatically, “Thank the gods.”

“Indeed.” She snorted in amusement as James meandered to the doorway, waiting as Alice paused to slip the neatly stacked piles of paperwork from her desk into a worn leather wallet to be collected for the fleet back in London to depart for the continents.  He held out her coat, brushing the odd piece of lint from its shoulder as she adjusted her vest and made an attempt by way of a passing mirror to tame the short blond mop so very intent on curling up about her ears. It was an addition her mother cared little for due in part to its attribution to her brief stint in confinement, but personally Alice found it reminded her of _him,_ even if it lacked a certain vibrantly beautiful shade of fiery orange or a distinctly shaped hat set upon its top.  

“Oh well,” She sighed, “Nothing’s to be done I suppose.” 

By the time she’d reached twenty five, Alice had filled out as any woman of such an age should have, but unlike the rest of those her age had the enormous privilege of managing to not set a single foot anywhere near anything remotely resembling domestication, but expanded their ventures, with James’ help of course, deep into the oriental heartlands and experienced the peoples of almost every continent this world had to offer and indulged in their cultures, even enjoyed the odd adventure here and there through the unknown parts of the world no man would ever dare tread, let alone woman, and embraced every challenge with as much muchness as she could. 

But lately, her muchness had begun to falter. The dreams didn’t help of course but the arms which had once wielded the Vorpal sword and guided the Chronosphere through the seas of Time to save all Underland felt weak and useless despite the heavy weighted tomes of business and bureaucracy she lingered over more and more with each passing day.  She felt the wound in her heart, inflicted by the face of the man she’d left behind once again, festering as she milled through the endless detritus required of her to keep Kingsleigh and Kingsleigh’s vast trading empire running smoothly, and while she was glad her account ledgers heralded no danger, there was an unfortunate lack of adventures to be had with balding old board members and their dreary desk clerks. 

A distinct lack of evaporating cats, magic queens, door mice, march hares and mad hatters at tea had also begun getting on her last nerves to the point she’d taken to consulting with her watch should Time himself be listening and grant her an audience to silence her misery.  She was brought back to the present as James clicked his heels with a nod towards the hall.  

“Shall we?” 

“No point trying to avoid the inevitable.” She quipped, shining her boots quite out of habit on the back of her trousers. 

“Quite.” James snorted his agreement as they strode through the grand archways leading towards the solarium and the happy couple no doubt waiting to tell of their news.  Alice swallowed over the lump in her throat as her thoughts turned to things not so far beyond her understanding anymore as she laid eyes on her mother who beamed brighter than the sun itself as she entered. 

“Mother.” She smiled, shaking off her melancholy as she took her offered hands and settled on the sun worn chaise beside her. 

“Oh Alice.” Helen’s eyes watered as she gazed from her daughter to the man preening from behind the ferns, her joy palpable as she presented the delicate silver sapphire rest against her pale and still slightly sea fared knuckles. “I don’t know what to say?” 

“Well I should certainly hope you said yes.” She shook her head in bemusement as she kissed the weeping woman’s cheeks. 

“Well of course I did.” She tutted. 

James leaning down to brush a kiss up her aged cheek with a knowing smirk, “Congratulations Helen.” 

“You knew?!” She gaped, glaring at the man who stepped behind Alice might she shield him from her mother’s ire. 

“Of course we knew, Mother.” Alice soothed, clasping her hand gently, “As it was you’re lucky James didn’t spoil the surprise before Gerry had even a chance to ask.” 

“I wasn’t quite that bad.” James groused with a roll of his eyes, earning himself a scoff of laughter from the younger Kingsleigh and a fond twitter from the elder. 

“Oh stop.” She waved a kerchief at the pair, “It’s a conspiracy apparently.”  

Helen sighed happily, shaking her head as Gerald squeezed her shoulder with an amused chuckle. “I suppose we’ll have to consider dates…” 

Moving to settle down across from the pair as they discussed their pending nuptials, Alice began to pour the tea, momentarily caught up in the solitary figure she cut in the mirrored wall, tea pot clutched in her lap when her image suddenly shifted to overlap another sat under similar circumstance at a startlingly familiar tea table from oh so long ago. 

“Hatter?”  She stilled, suddenly finding she couldn’t quite hold the weight of the pot, setting it down with a clatter lest she drop it as the familiar pain in her chest flared to life most disagreeably and refused to budge. 

“Alice?” She heard James query softly, the weight of his hand on her forearm grounding her as she clutched at her chest. 

“I’m fine.” Came the automatic response, her eyes not daring to move from the familiar green orbs that gazed back at her, “I-” 

“Are you?”  She gasped as a flash of blue suddenly caught her eye in the mirror’s reflection as it passed over her head.

“Absolem!”  Without a second thought she rose from her seat to follow him towards the looking glass. 

“Alice?” The sound of her mother’s voice gave her pause, the world around her suddenly rushing back into focus as she stood before the swirling abyss, “Alice, what are you doing?” 

“I have to go,” Her fingers twitched as she stepped forward to grasp her mother’s hands firmly in her own, eyes pleading with the elder woman to understand, “I might not get another chance and I can’t - _won’t -_ let him down again.”  

Helen shook her head in fear and confusion as she glanced at the unexplainable phenomenon happening in their green house, “Who?”  

“Someone I’ve kept waiting for far too long I fear,” Alice pressed quietly but no less desperately than she felt the pull in her heart, “Someone who means the world to me.” 

“Oh Alice.” Helen gasped, a tear in her eye as she clutched her daughter to her breast, “I never thought I’d see the day- do you truly-?” 

“Yes,” She whispered, knowing the question without having been asked it, “More than anything.” 

“I won’t pretend to understand everything that might be going on,” She admitted as she kissed her cheek. “But that, that I can most definitely understand.” 

“Darling?” Gerald stepped forward as Helen released her daughter and gently pushed her back towards the mirror, “What on Earth is going on here?” 

“There are letters but James will explain what couldn’t be written, I promise,” Alice bid as the man himself returned with her worn old satchel, “He knows our story well. Give my love to Margaret and little Tobias. If you must, tell them I’ve eloped, I’m sure you’ll make up something.” 

“Of course.” Helen promised, clutching her fiancé in one hand and James in the other as she bid farewell to her daughter.  

“Find him Alice, be happy,” James offered a small smirk and a nod, “If not, he’ll have me to answer to.” 

“I’ll be sure to let him know,” She beamed, reaching out a hand to him, “If he’s still speaking to me that is.” 

“He’d be mad not to.” He quipped with a smirk. 

“Oh completely.” She agreed with the first real grin she’d felt stretch her face in longer than she cared to recall as she turned for the portal.  

“If it’s possible, I will see you all again,” Alice felt the pull just under the glass’s surface as she pressed her hand against it, “But if I can’t-” 

She offered a kind smile over her shoulder, “Fairfarren.”

"Goodbye Alice.” Her mother bid, her proud yet tear stained face disappearing into the swirling ether as Alice let herself be swept away towards the familiar streak of blue shining brightly from within. 

“Absolem.” She called after him. “Absolem wait!”

“You’re late.” He muttered as she finally caught up, rolling her eyes at his eternally unpleasant disposition.

“Put it down to an apparent lack of functioning rabbit holes or looking glasses.” She quipped equally as irritably. “Where are we going anyway, shouldn’t we have reached the in between by now?”

“Not this time,” He drawled, suddenly changing directions, “The in between is only required when Underland has issued a direct summons upon its Champion. It’s a part of the magic used to return you to your mortal life after the requirements of said summons have been satisfied.”

“The difference now?” She queried, glancing down at her feet at the curious swirling of ether that marked her every step.

“This isn’t a summons,” He turned to raise a fury brow as if it should have been obvious, “You _wanted_ to return and luckily for you someone had half a mind to extend you an invitation to stay.”

They had?

“Who?”

“Who do you think?” He shot back in a tone that made her scowl as her mind raced back through her memories of Underland to finally pause on the moments before she’d downed the blood of the Jabberwocky.

_You could stay?_

Her steps faltered, “Oh.”

“Yes, _oh_.” Absolem huffed, “Now stop dawdling, the process of transition is particularly tedious, especially with only a partial tether in place. I’m not sure how you’ll fare with the substitute once you arrive but as we have little choice under the circumstances you’ll have to make do.”

“What circumstances?”

“You’ve been extended the courtesy of one of the oldest clans in all of Underland,” He sniffed, pausing to flutter just above her head as he spoke, “Someone’s mother wants a word with you.”

She swallowed at the prospect of the only person in all Underland she knew who might fit the description. “That sounds rather ominous.”

“It does, doesn’t it,” He smirked as he glanced down at her feet, “Do mind the drop this time.”

She gaped as the ground suddenly dissolved beneath her feet and she felt herself falling through the darkness shouting curses at the insufferable insect that grew smaller and smaller the further she fell.

She rolled to face her fall, arms splayed wide as she tried to slow her descent to nowhere in particular until she noticed the almost imperceptible red thread that spooled from her chest. She cringed at the pain it caused in her heart as she tried to pull it away, instead opting to grasp it tightly and pull herself along it.

She didn’t know how or why, but the more she pulled the more familiar it felt. It was warm and comforting which was just absurd considering a piece of string could be called neither unless made into something that might be both.

Any further consideration on the topic however was promptly forgotten as another pull found her quite suddenly plummeting from the top of Marmoreals’ great domed ceiling right into the unrelenting marble of Mirana’s tea table mid service.

 

 


End file.
